Tour de France: André Greipel takes maiden Tour de France victory

André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) put one over on his former teammate and rival Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) to the finish in Carmaux to take the tenth stage of the Tour de France. Cavendish, whose presence in the team kept Greipel out of the race in previous years, was forced to sprint without his leadout train, much of which had been dropped on the final climb, and Greipel was able to come around in the final metres.

Spanish champion José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) finished third, two lengths behind the two rivals, after a dramatic finale, which almost saw Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) steal the stage from the sprinters.

“This is the biggest race in the world and I could be part of it this year,” said Greipel at the finish. “My goal was to win a stage and the team supported me for that. I think I am the happiest person in the world at the moment.

“I prepared for this all season long and my team supported me to get me in a good position,” he explained. “Gilbert attacked on the last climb and Marcel Sieberg gave me a really good position and I could save my legs for the sprint.

A likely stage for the sprinters as the Pyrénées loom in the distance

After a rest day in the spectacular Cantal department, the peloton was faced with a relatively short 158km hop between. Aurillac and Carmaux. With the Pyrénées on the horizon, the race’s main contenders would be keen to pass the day as calmly as possible; avoiding a repeat of the crashes that have been plaguing the race since the very first day.

The stage should, on paper, end in a sprint but the four classified hills and the weather conditions – there was a hailstorm before the start – threatened to make things rather more complicated. The rolling parcours virtually guaranteed a breakaway and, while it would be up to the Europcar team of yellow jersey Thomas Voeckler to control it, the sprinters teams would doubtless take control towards the end of the stage.

With the intermediate sprint positioned after just 37.5km though, the green jersey contenders might want to prevent the break from going early.

The stage would start without Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack), who is suffering with a fever after his crash on stage nine, and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), who returned a non-negative A-sample for Hydrochlorothiazide earlier in the race.

The break goes early and and yet other crash prevents anyone from stopping it

Whether or not the sprinters’ teams wanted to delay the break until after the intermediate sprint though, as a crash in the peloton after 11km – just as a group of six riders had got clear – made the decision for them.

Rémy Di Gregorio (Astana), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale), Julien El Fares (Cofidis), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) escaped after 10km. The speeding peloton was not sure if it was going to allow the break though, but the necessary regrouping after the crash saw the sextet get away.

Among those brought down or delayed were Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek), Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM), white jersey Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky). Most of these were already nursing injuries from previous crashes, especially Flècha who was brought down by a car on stage nine, but all were able to rejoin the peloton.

Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) tried to chase across, but Europcar took control of the front of the peloton to prevent any further counterattacks. HTC-Highroad and Movistar ten took over and wound up the pace, for Mark Cavendish and José Joaquin Rojas respectively, as the peloton approached the intermediate sprint.

On the approach to the sprint in Maurs the break’s lead reached as much as 2’40” but, with HTC-Highroad and Movistar winding up the pace, it began to drop.

A little victory for Cavendish as the intermediate sprint goes his way

Vichot led the breakaway across the line, while behind them the HTC-Highroad team led Cavendish over 2’13” later. Rojas gesticulated at the Manx rider, and his leadout man Mark Renshaw, feeling that he was impeded in his sprint.

With the sprint out of the way, the peloton eased up and the six-rider break opened up its lead; it was up four minutes after 48km.

El Fares was closest to Voeckler, 15’06” behind, so Europcar could afford to let them take several minutes. With very little pressure on the French team to do much to defend Voeckler’s lead, the onus fell on those of the sprinters to pull them back if they wanted a chance to win the stage.

We had to defend the yellow jersey and so we concentrated as much as possible,” said Voeckler at the finish. “We will try to fight hard tomorrow.”

While Europcar was setting a tempo though, HTC-Highroad, Lampre-ISD and Katusha put men forward to keep the leaders under control; their advantage began gradually to fall.

“It was a nice day for me and for all the team,” said Voeckler. “We had to ride a little bit on the front of the bunch, but we had the help of many guys from the HTC[-Highroad] team. It was a good day for us and I had time to appreciate the day in yellow..

A rolling stage but not enough points on offer to threaten the limping Hoogerland

As the leaders hit the base of the 3rd category Côte de Figeac, after 60km, their lead had been cut to 3’35”, where it would hover for some time. Luckily for Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) there was a maximum of just six mountain points available in the stage. The Dutchman could afford to rest his battered body, as much as possible, without having to worry about losing his polka-dot jersey.

The pattern was set for the middle part of the stage, with the HTC-Highroad gradually reducing the gap to the leaders, and with 60km to go, it was down to 2’45”.

On the 3rd category climb of the Côte de Villefranche-de-Rouergue, which topped put with 58.5km to go, a number of sprinters were made to suffer by the pace set on the front. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) found himself tailing off the back of the peloton, but the stage three winner was nursed over by his team, and managed to rejoin the peloton on the descent.

The six leaders’ advantage continued to drop as the race entered its closing stages. With 50km to go it was down to 1’50”, with 40km 1’28”, and it finally came down to a minute with 33km to go.

On the long, steady descent to the base of the final climb, the reduction of the deficit slowed. The peloton was none too keen to catch the six riders too soon and, with the downhill gradient, the break and the peloton were travelling at more or less the same speed. With 25km to go the gap was static at 53 seconds.

Marcato and Gilbert mix it up on the final climb as the peloton closes on the break

Marcato clearly felt that at least some of the others in the group were becoming passengers and, with 21km to go, he attacked. Minard jumped onto his wheel and they pulled clear of the rest. Vichot quickly chased across as the other three were left behind, to be caught a few kilometres later.

Omega Pharma-Lotto was now working on the front as the peloton hit the bottom of the 4th category Côte de Mirandol-Bourgnounac, to try to shed Gilbert’s rivals in the green jersey classification.

Meanwhile, up ahead Marcato attacked the other two with 17km to go and escaped as the other two sat up. The Italian was now just 11 seconds clear though, with a kilometre and a half still to climb.

Gilbert himself was working on the front, along with teammate Jelle Vanendert and they were gaining fast. The fierce pace that the two Belgians were setting split the peloton, with a group of only around 25 left at the front. Marcato was crawling in comparison by now, and he was caught with 16km to go; a full kilometre before the top.

Another break goes and threatens to deny the sprinters

With 700 metres to go to the summit Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) attacked and only Gilbert, Voeckler and Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) could go with him. The four of them got together, as Voeckler led over the top, but Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) chased across.

There was now a group of five riders off the front of the race, which included the yellow and green jerseys

The BMC Racing Team was leading the chase behind them, to be joined by Leopard Trek and Team Sky as the peloton organised itself after the climb. Devenyns tried to go alone with 13km to go, but the other four pulled him back, and with 11km to go they led by 16 seconds

Omega Pharma-Lotto had positioned itself at the front of the peloton to disrupt the chase, and the gap to the leaders opened up slightly; under the 10km to go banner Garmin-Cervélo took over on the front and the gap was still 15 seconds.

Gilbert was putting in huge turns on the front as the others were thinking of the stage. Martin in particular was doing virtually no work, hiding at the back, since his team was working for the sprint behind. Voeckler was not keen on the German’s marking role though, and gesticulated at him to do some work; Martin simply waved the yellow jersey back into the line ahead of him.

On a small rise with 8km to go Devenyns had another go, but only had the effect of dropping Gallopin; the Frenchman was soon joined, just ahead of the peloton, by Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who had attacked.

Shortly after Devenyns’ attack, Gilbert decided that he would go it alone dropped the others immediately. The three riders drifted back to the peloton and were quickly absorbed by the peloton, along with Gallopin and Urtasun.

The finish is in sight but a sprint is far from certain

With just over 5km Gilbert had 12 seconds as the others were all pulled back, the road rose up again just after the 5km banner though and the Belgian champion almost ground to a halt. He was swamped at 4.5km to go, but there was still plenty of time for more counterattacks.

Almost immediately Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) jumped from the front of the peloton, followed by Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale); Perez faded quickly but Ruijgh and Kadri continued. HTC-Highroad was leading though, with four on the front, and the two of them could only get a few seconds clear. Cavendish was there, but leadout man Renshaw and Matt Goss had both been dropped on or after the climb.

Ruijgh and Kadri were caught with 3km to go and David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo) immediately jumped clear. The Scotsman couldn’t get far clear either though, he was pulled back by the Tony Martin led peloton with 1.5km to go.

Into the final kilometre Omega Pharma-Lotto took over on the front, with much of the HTC-Highroad train missing. Cavendish himself dropped back a few places to take the wheels of his rivals, as Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) led into the final corner; starting his sprint from a long way out.

Two old rivals go head to head and the underdog comes out on top

Cavendish launched himself around Oss, but Greipel was right behind him. The German pulled alongside the Manxman as the line approached to take his first Tour stage, in his first appearance in the race, by a wheel.

Although Omega Pharma-Lotto and Gilbert’s blistering pace on the final climb – and the chase to pull back the Belgian champion in the end – had dropped a number of riders, none of the overall contenders – or those currently at the top of the classification – were left behind. There are no changes to the overall standings, with Voeckler taking his term in the yellow jersey into a second day.

“I am very happy to keep the jersey for one more day,” he said. I have to remain concentrated to keep this jersey.”

Voeckler has one more, slightly flatter, day to enjoy his second career term in yellow before the race hits the Pyrénées on Thursday.